1 Thorpe Close, Ladbroke Grove

A Home-Start Westminster Volunteer offers regular support, friendship and practical help to families with young children who are experiencing difficulties, in their own homes, helping to prevent family crisis or breakdown.
We need Volunteers as we have families from the Grenfell area we are working with and would like to be able to increase the offer of family support, in the medium and long term.

This Role requires a high level of commitment and reliability and will be supported by the Home-Start Coordinator.

About Home-Start Westminster - VCKC

We support ANY family living in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea who needs us, providing there is at least 1 child under 5, or a baby on the way. Rich or poor, settled or transient; there are times when we all need support and friendship but do not know where to turn. Our trained volunteers help to give encouragement and support to change the pattern of troubled lives.

Since 1999 we have grown up fast … we started with 9 families and 9 volunteers. Last year, we supported 211 families & 424 children with 117 volunteers from our centre in Rossmore Road, NW1. From November 1st 2014 we extended our support to the neighboring borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This move has enabled us to support even more families across the tri borough area. The challenges during our growing up have been enormous. We knew we were working in a ‘mixed’ area with some of the richest and poorest wards in the country, and with over 54 nationalities. Chronic overcrowding in Westminster is amongst the worst in the UK. This leads to considerable pressure on all members of the family (with some children only having a cardboard box in which to keep their treasures and know as their private space.). We could not have met these challenges without the wonderful support from so many sources. These are just a few:
- Our volunteers, who continue to amaze us with their commitment, love and sheer willpower to make a difference.
- Our trustees, who have helped to shape us into a real centre of excellence in delivering our service.
- Our major funders without whom we simply would not be here, Big Lottery Fund, The John Armitage
Charitable Trust, John Lyon’s Charity, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster
Foundation & many more.
- Our families: this is a two way partnership between HSW and our families, the rewards for both can be unexpected, sometimes there is a difficult path to tread that take us all out of our comfort zone … but the end results, as told by our families, can be magical and long term. Over the last 15 years we have made a little go a long way.